Cancer fighters take action at Relay for Life

The Portsmouth resident is a 35-year survivor of cervical cancer, her 95-year-old father has survived prostrate cancer, but lung cancer claimed the life of her husband exactly five years ago Sunday.

"It's difficult to know you're going to die," Petruzzi said Sunday during a break from the annual Seacoast Relay for Life to benefit the American Cancer Society. "But he fought every day for two and a half years."

The couple met shortly before she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1978.

"I was a single mother with two kids and he ended up taking care of me and making sure the kids were in bed every night," she said. "Then 30 years later I became his caregiver."

For 17 years she has been walking with other survivors in the Relay for Life, just as she did at this year's event on the lacrosse field at Portsmouth High School.

Seventeen groups also volunteered to do laps to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Petruzzi and her husband used to walk together, but her grandchildren walk with her now. The events are important because they raise both money and awareness, said Petruzzi, 69.

The money helps with all the important research going on to find either better treatments or eventually cures for cancer.

"Things have changed so much for the better. When I was diagnosed, people died from cancer but fortunately I had a doctor who treated it aggressively," she said. "You heard the 'C word' and that was it. People didn't recover from cancer."

The annual walks also create a sense of kinship between the cancer survivors.

"It gives us a feeling of family," Petruzzi said. "It's just this camaraderie. We might not see each other during the year, but then we see each other during the walks and get to share our war stories."

Sarah Hamel of Newmarket walked in Sunday's Relay for Life with her 4-year-old daughter Lily, who was diagnosed with retinoblastoma when she was just 7 months old.

Like all the other survivors, Lily Hamel wore purple as she walked around the field on Sunday, then smiled widely as she shook a visitor's hand.

The terrifying diagnosis, along with the ordeal of having a young child endure treatment at several Boston hospitals, has fortunately ended with Lily being cancer free, her mother said Sunday.

"She's in remission," Hamel said as a group of her family and friends cheered. Their mood comes in stark contrast to when Lily was diagnosed.

"My world turned upside down. One minute you have a healthy baby and then she's diagnosed with cancer," Hamel said.

Her daughter received chemotherapy and laser treatments to "kill the tumors in her eyes," Hamel said.

She credits the support of family and friends for helping them while Lily battled cancer, saying, "It's the only way to get through it."

Like Petruzzi, Hamel has had a number of family members stricken with cancer, including her husband. "I'm a wife, a mother and daughter of cancer survivors," Hamel said.

She said her family is fortunate that her husband works as a teacher and has good health insurance coverage, meaning they were able to go to several Boston hospitals, including Massachusetts Eye and Ear, where an expert in their daughter's form of cancer works.

"There were people coming from around the country to see my daughter's doctor," Hamel said. "We would have done that too, but to only have to drive to Boston ... we're very lucky."

Asked if he felt unlucky to have endured three cancers or lucky to have survived them, Tebow laughed and said, "I'm lucky that I made it to 85."

He walked with Lily in the Relay for Life and still works one day a week at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

"And I can still outrun these guys," he said Sunday.

Fred Anderson of South Hampton, one of the organizers of Sunday's event, is a cancer survivor, as is his wife.

But cancer took the life of his father, and took it quickly, he said during an interview Sunday as he sat at a table under a canopy that offered some shelter from the heat and humidity.

"He was diagnosed with cancer in late 2005 and he was dead in January 2006," Anderson said. "There was nothing they could do."

When Anderson was told he had prostate cancer in 2005, he remembers the gravity of the diagnosis.

"It was very tough," Anderson said. "Then my wife was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and that was even tougher."

But both cancers are in remission and the couple have been walking in Relays for Life and helping to raise money for cancer research ever since.

"Anytime you can raise money or awareness, it helps," he said.

Along with the cancer survivors, 17 teams volunteered to walk to raise money for the day-long event.

Plus, a host of sponsors donated prizes for a silent auction held throughout the day.

David Petruzzi, Martha Petruzzi's son, volunteered at the event, as he has done since his father was diagnosed with cancer. He said Sunday he doesn't think the average person realizes how many people there are in the Seacoast dealing with cancer, until someone in their family is diagnosed.

"It makes you realize how much of a struggle it is," he said. "A lot of people still die from cancer."

For information about cancer, treatment options and how to donate, visit the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org.

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